Musical Mondays

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It's Monday, the start of the working week. To counter-act the post-weekend blues, cheer yourself up with Radio Weird: Songs of Eerie. Whether you're checking out some of eviinsanemonkey's amazing filks, or taking up deifire's awesome recommendations for Eerie-centric listening, or creating a musical fanwork of your very own, share your thoughts, and your favourites, in the comments!

( Stabbity Steve: a Murder Ballad by Eviinsanemonkey )

( After Wolf Mountain: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Pay Attention: a Filk by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Krampus: an Eerie Christmas Poem by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Moo! A World o' Stuff advertising jingle by Eviinsanemonkey )

( Bigfoot Stole My Mail: a Musical by Owen Neil )

( Eerie, Indiana fanvids by Roseveare )

( Weird Science (Don't Leave My Arms): an Eerie, Indiana Melanie/Devon/Marshall fanvid by Current Joys )

Check out this amazing Krampus tree!

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Have my custom Dark Elf ornaments from Etsy, and my KrampusBell from @WetaWorkshop! Absolutely love these! #krampus @Mike_Dougherty @UniversalPics @KrampusMovie pic.twitter.com/tYPCgPEOX9

— Caleb (@Wonderboy20) November 22, 2017

Radiator Heaven reviews Eerie, Indiana

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When Eerie, Indiana debuted on American television in September 1991, it was well-received by critics who favorably compared it to Twin Peaks, albeit for kids. However, I always felt that a better analogy for this clever, short-lived show was that it was actually Friday the 13th: The Series for kids. Like the protagonists in that supernatural-themed program, the main characters in Eerie – two young boys – investigated bizarre happenings and collected artifacts from their adventures. The latter was much more light-hearted in tone than Friday the 13th, but still had a creepy undertone reminiscent of episodes of the classic era of The Twilight Zone.

Eerie, Indiana was the brainchild of Jose Rivera and Karl Schaefer, both relatively inexperienced in the realm of T.V. at the time (Rivera had done a handful of episodes for various sitcoms, while Schaefer had even less experience) but they capitalized on the flood gates of weirdness that Twin Peaks broke open during its brief tenure to push through a quirky show reminiscent of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries but if written by Stephen King. However, the look and feel of the show is indebted to filmmaker Joe Dante who not only directed the first episode (and four others) but also acted as creative consultant for the series. It is easy to see what drew him to the project as the suburban setting, with child protagonists encountering fantastical events, are all hallmarks of his career.

Dante really sets the overall look and tone for the series with the first episode, entitled “Forever Ware” (a sly nod to the classic science fiction novel The Forever War by Joe Haldeman perhaps?). Marshall Teller (Omri Katz) is a 13-year-old boy whose parents have moved from New Jersey, “just across the river from New York City,” where he loved that it was “crowded, polluted and full of crime,” to the wholesome, squeaky clean suburbs of Eerie, Indiana. Sure, it looks like a cross between the all-American Lumberton in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) and the cookie cutter neighborhood in Edward Scissorhands (1990), but Marshall isn’t fooled. He can see past the façade and realizes that the town is in fact the “center of weirdness for the entire planet,” where the local mailman is packing a firearm, a lady hangs her laundry to dry which includes a strait-jacket, and a graying Elvis Presley emerges from his home to pick up the daily newspaper. And in a nice Lynchian touch, a crow can be seen perched on the town sign with an eyeball in its mouth. And this is all conveyed in the prologue!

Marshall’s family is introduced to the neighborhood by Betty Wilson, an AVON lady/Stepford Wife hybrid with two sons (Bert and Ernie – har, har) that peddle ultra-efficient Tupperware called Forever Ware. Betty’s eager to not just sell Marshall’s mother (Mary-Margaret Humes) some of her containers but invite her to become part of a small circle of friends. However, when one Betty’s sons slips Marshall a cryptic note, he decides to investigate with the help of his next-door neighbor Simon (Justin Shenkarow). They soon uncover a rather sinister plot that won’t make you look at vacuum-sealed plastic containers the same way again. Of note is Dante’s trademark mix of horror and humor through the eyes of young kids.

Part of what makes Eerie, Indiana work so well is how it takes things that kids deal with while growing up and give them a slightly sinister, supernatural spin, like going through the ordeal of getting braces in “The Retainer,” which sees a hapless kid beset by a prototypical retainer created by an orthodontist cum mad scientist (played with relish by Vincent Schiavelli) that allows the wearer to hear what dogs are thinking and it ain’t pretty. Marshall and Simon uncover a canine revolution where dogs demand, “Down with Kibble!” and “No more Stupid Pet Tricks!” and “No more neutering!” The only thing that appears to be stopping them is “the mystery of the doorknob,” as one dog puts it. While these scenes are played for laughs because of the sheer absurdity of the concept, it does remind one of how poorly dogs (and animals in general) are treated in pounds/shelters and are regarded in our society.

“ATM With a Heart of Gold” places more of an emphasis on Simon as he befriends an intelligent ATM machine that Marshall’s father (Francis Guinan) invented. The machine’s interface features a computer avatar that’s a cross between Max Headroom and a Ken doll known as Mr. Wilson. Simon is just a kid who wants to belong and have friends because his home life is so crappy. In one scene, we see him walk towards a drab, earth-toned colored house where we can hear his parents arguing and fighting within. No wonder he wants to hang out with Marshall and investigate flights of fancy. Shenkarow does a nice job of conveying the longing Simon has for friends and how this leads him to befriending Mr. Wilson. This also blinds him to the machine’s creepy malfunctions. Pretty soon Simon learns that you can’t buy friendship and that money won’t solve all your problems.

Robert Altman regular Henry Gibson and Dante regular Dick Miller make an appearance in the Dante-directed episode, “The Losers,” and seem to be having a blast playing men responsible for all the recently disappearing items in Eerie. There are some nice visual gags in this one as we get a look at a few rather famous missing items found in their lair, chief among them a pod from Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and the sled from Citizen Kane (1941). This is definitely a more playful, whimsical episode and it is great to see veteran character actors like Gibson and Miller playing such pivotal roles.

I always enjoy Halloween-themed episodes of T.V. shows and Eerie, Indiana does not disappoint with “America’s Scariest Home Video,” which pays homage to the Boris Karloff 1932 horror film The Mummy as Marshall and Simon are stuck babysitting Simon’s little brother only to have the mischievous tyke transport himself into a horror film on T.V. and the Mummy in the film appearing in the house. The fog-enshrouded night and decrepit monster always make me think of John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980) minus the scary pirates from beyond.

In 1990, co-creator Jose Rivera was working on an idea for a horror anthology show set in a high school that would have been a teenage version of The Twilight Zone. Meanwhile, co-creator Karl Schaefer had an idea for a modern-day Tom Sawyer story. An agent got the two men together and they merged their ideas to create Eerie, Indiana. Schaefer described the show as “a twisted, modern fairy tale.” Rivera grew up loving fairy tales and wanted to impart notions of magic realism into suburbia, “that beneath the veneer of malls and crossing guards there lurks a deeper reality of something just slightly off-centre.”

He and Rivera picked Indiana because it had the image of “being a benign, harmless place to live.” They also asked Joe Dante to direct the pilot episode and with him convinced the executives at NBC to air the show. Schaefer said that the network liked the central character Marshall but they had to be convinced that the concept of the show would work because it was so different from NBC’s usual fare. In retrospect, Dante considered Eerie, Indiana a dream project because he was there at its inception and was then asked to stay on as a creative consultant. As a result, he even had a hand in casting Omri Katz. The producers originally wanted “this geeky kid,” according to Dante, but he felt Katz was more authentic and the young actor was cast. Dante was obviously taken with Katz as he subsequently cast him in his next film, Matinee (1993).

Eerie, Indiana was well-received by critics when it first debuted on television. Entertainment Weekly gave it a "B" rating and Ken Tucker wrote, "You watch Eerie for the small-screen spectacle of it all — to see the way, in the show's first few weeks, feature-film directors like Joe Dante (Gremlins) and Tim Hunter (River’s Edge) oversaw episodes that summoned up an atmosphere of absurdist suburban dread. The Hollywood Reporter’s Miles Beller wrote, "Scripted by Karl Schaefer and Jose Rivera with smart, sharp insights; slyly directed by feature film helmsman Joe Dante; and given edgy life by the show's winning cast, Eerie, Indiana shapes up as one of the fall season's standouts, a newcomer that has the fresh, bracing look of Edward Scissorhands and scores as a clever, wry presentation well worth watching." USA Today described the show as "Stephen King by way of The Simpsons," and Matt Roush wrote, "Eerie recalls Edward Scissorhands and even – heaven help it – David Lynch in its garish nightmare-comedy depiction of the lurid and silly horrors that lurk beneath suburban conformity." Finally, the Washington Times’ David Klinghoffer wrote, "Everything about the pilot exceeds the normal minimal expectations of TV. Mr. Dante directs as if he were making a movie, and a good one. In a departure from usual TV operating procedures, he sometimes actually has more than one thing going on on screen at the same time!"

After Eerie, Indiana’s demise, co-creator Karl Schaefer stayed in the genre, writing and producing T.V. shows routed in fantasy and horror, like Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Eureka and The Ghost Whisperer. Jose Rivera also continued to dabble in the supernatural, writing episodes for Goosebumps, Night Visions and Shadow Realm before moving on much acclaim with his screenplay for The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and adapting Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road for the big screen. Omri Katz worked again with Dante in Matinee and starred in the fun family film about witches, Hocus Pocus (1993) before going back to T.V. with the short-lived but critically-acclaimed, The John Larroquette Show. Aside from a couple of one-off guest spots here and there, he’s largely dropped out of the business, which is a shame. Since Eerie, Justin Shenkarow has worked steadily in T.V. and movies, most notable a regular on the show Picket Fences while also doing a lot of voice work. Joe Dante has found it increasingly harder to get his kind of films made and has also gone back to T.V., directing two episodes apiece for the horror anthology shows Night Visions and Masters of Horror. He has made a new film called The Hole (2009), which is still without a North American distributor (?!).

Eerie, Indiana takes the trials and tribulations of a teenage boy, like his first crush on a girl, and gives them a supernatural spin – said girl gets a heart transplant from another boy that liked her and begins acting like him. The otherworldly aspects allow the show to deal with heavy topics like life and death while still aiming it at kids. However, there are plenty references for adults to recognize and enjoy, like the numerous visual cues to classic horror films and guest stars, like John Astin, from classic film and T.V., that elevates it above typical kiddie fare. Eerie’s influence can still be felt in more recent kid shows like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Goosebumps, and the more recent House of Anubis. However, none of its offspring could quite duplicate the diversity of Eerie, which wasn’t afraid to end some episodes on a whimsical note, or on an ominous one, or even in a poignant way. And I think this is down to the presence of Joe Dante, who instilled that X-factor missing from other shows of its ilk. Much like what David Lynch brought to Twin Peaks, Dante gave Eerie, Indiana the look and feel of cinema with each episode having his personal touch regardless of whether he directed it or not. This is why the show still holds up today and works whether you’re a young kid or simply young at heart.

Eerie, Indiana/Jack in the Box raven on the town sign toy on eBay

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"Original Jack in the Box LOOSE toy from 1999. This was originally part of the EERIE, INDIANA set.

You will receive the following Single LOOSE Toy: EERIE, INDIANA - population sign

Made of plastic, painted, some small paint smudges on front of sign area. See photos."

HorrorTalk reviews Josh Malerman's Goblin

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Welcome to Goblin, an average American small town where nothing much happens. Forget that, this is a Josh Malerman production, so expect the unexpected where anything can happen. Josh is in the early stages of a stellar career and from what he has published already, it's blindingly obvious he can turn his hand to anything. He is a unique voice in the world of weird fiction. A new Malerman is fast becoming a calendar event for me and I'm already hungry for the next novel, Burying Susan, which is out in 2018, and early rumours say is superb.

Goblin is the name of the town where these six interconnected novellas are set and although they are standalone reads, there is some clever cross-pollination between the tales. As you would expect with Malerman, each story is as quirkily unique as the town which threads them together. At the time of writing, Goblin is only available directly from Tony Jones as a limited edition hardback, which is almost sold out. At some point in the future it should hopefully be republished in a more mainstream format, including e-book. It would be a shame if this charmingly odd work remains unavailable to the public at large, but I'll be very surprised if it doesn't have a wider release next year sometime.

As the subheading is "A novel in six novellas", I would advise reading them in the order they are presented, especially as it opens with a superb prologue "Welcome", which is so good it almost had me cheating and skipping to the promised epilogue "Make Yourself at Home", which wraps up the cliff-hanging opening stanza. I managed to resist though, and lapped up the six stories, all set on the same rainy Goblin night.

Goblin is a weird little town, strange things are accepted as normal and the supernatural is hinted at but goes unexplained. It's that kind of place. Across the stories there is a haunted forest, very weird birdlife, possibly a witch and very, very strange policemen. The town itself is a great character, as haunting and vivid as TV shows Twin Peaks, Eerie Indiana or the brilliant novel HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt, all of which have towns of great presence. The local inhabitants are very proud of their heritage and many of the stories cleverly fill in the backstory of the town, taking it back to the time of the original settlers. If you read any of these novellas as standalone offerings, the history stuff might come across as padding and you would miss out on the drip-effect the author uses to reveal more about the town.

You could argue much of Malerman's published work thus far could be set in or around Goblin. Who's to say his beautiful House at the Bottom of the Lake novella about a perfectly preserved underwater house is not set on the outskirts of Goblin? Or that the two feuding horror filmmakers Ghastle and Yule aren't Goblin residents? And what about "The House of the Head", a terrific short story about a little girl who believes her doll's house to be haunted? Elvie is most definitely a Goblin resident! Perhaps the military hospital in second novel Mad Black Wheel could be lurking in the backstreets of Goblin also? Malerman's world is a weird one, so Goblin is a perfect fit.

"A Man in Slices" concerns Richard, who has had the same best friend for years, Charles. The problem is everyone has always thought Charles is a bit strange, or worse. As Richard has never had many friends, he has always defended his oldest mate, and when he hears that Charles finally has a girlfriend, is over the moon. But soon Richard begins to realise he should have listened to the warning bells of years ago. Very entertaining dark fun which will have you looking at your best friend with sidelong glances.

"Kamp" is a highly enjoyable tale centring upon an overweight guy obsessed with seeing a ghost, or more specifically, obsessed that a ghost might scare him to death should he see one. He believes several of his family have seen ghosts and that his time will come soon, but he will be ready when it does. He rigs his rented apartment with cameras, alarms, knocks down walls and waits for the moment to arrive. Along the way, his elderly and meddling landlord, who has an interest in Goblin history, drops in for a drink and the night takes a different turn.

With a truly terrific ending with probably the most cross referencing between the other stories, "Happy Birthday Hunter!" is a beauty. Hunter is the richest man in Goblin and this is the evening of his big 60th birthday bash, with much of the town is invited. However, Hunter craves the one thing he really cannot have for a present, which takes him and his friends into the haunted forest and a world of pain.

Perhaps my personal favorite, "Presto", finds a young boy who is obsessed with magic, whose all-time favourite magician goes by the name 'Roman Emperor'. Mike is excited to find out his favourite magician is visiting Goblin for a show, but where will Mike get the $8 for a ticket and is Roman Emperor all that he seems? He's not a normal magician, that's for sure.

If you want to freaky a freaky little story where getting a job promotion really comes back to bite you then look no further than "A Mix-Up at the Zoo". Dirk switches jobs from refuge collector to working in a zoo; he is soon promoted from garbage collector to tour guide. He's a pretty simple guy, but both the kids on the tours and the animals really like him. But at the same time he is unsettled in a way he just cannot explain and feels a weird connection to the animals. Soon he picks up an unnecessary weekend job working in a local slaughterhouse and the two jobs just do not mix well for poor old Dirk.

Finally, we have the terrific "The Hedges", in which we finally get to meet the infamous Goblin police, who are mentioned in various other places. In honour of his dead wife, Wayne designed a huge maze which has become a local tourist attraction. There is supposed to be a prize lurking in the centre of the maze, which is impossible to find, until a little girl knocks on Wayne's door stating she cracked the maze and is now going to report poor old Wayne to the police. Pretty crazy stuff.

There's lots of great stuff to recommend in this off-beat collection from an author who can do no wrong with his recent output. Fingers crossed Goblin reappears in 2018, it really deserves to.

Eerie, Indiana fanfiction: Explicit Lyrics

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A direct sequel to Bright Lights. If you want to know more about Cosmo, you can find him here.

( Read more... )

( Read the rest of the Microwave verse here )

Newt Scamander with jackalopes by Helabella

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Look at the fat staring yellow one, he's amazing!